38:

Jack found himself flanked by goblins both before and behind him. He had managed to deter any new climbers from finding their way up by kicking, stabbing and shield punching them back to the bottom of the escarpment, but he knew that his efforts had brought him a minute, maybe two at best.

Still, he had problems of a more immediate nature to deal with first. Three, in fact. Two goblins blocked his path forward as they stood side by side, a single-sided axe in one’s hand while the other wielded a curved scimitar that had been crudely serrated. Behind him, a single rift goblin leered at him with a set of small yet no doubt deadly hammers.

Jack himself stood wedged in the middle, with his feet spread apart and held parallel to each other towards the left, away from the edge of the plateau. Confronting his opponents with his sides facing them wasn’t the most ideal of battle stances, but it was the only way Jack could keep track of the threats that he was facing visually, with his shield defending him from an attack from the dual-hammer wielding goblin while his Moonsword was pointed in the direction of the two rift goblins.

Sweat beaded his forehead as Jack wondered how he’d landed in the precarious position, but the truth was that battle moved too quickly for him to keep track of every rift goblin that was arrayed against him.

If he didn’t act, Jack was dead anyway, so he feigned a charge with his shield arm, bashing it forward even though he knew that there was no way for him to bridge the distance without breaking the impasse and being skewered from behind.

The dual-hammer wielding rift goblin saw the opening in his guard and chose to accept it for a stroke of good fortune as Jack’s wide swing revealed a path to his vulnerable chest.

As the dual-hammer wielding goblin thanked it’s lucky stars and advanced, Jack let loose the tension in his elbow before willing it to swing to his defense, using the weight of the shield to aid in the pendulum-like momentum.

The Shield of Greater Deflection crashed against the hammer artifact that could not match it in rarity and a burst of Wind Qi was sent whipping outwards.

As the rift goblin was sent tumbling backwards, both its hammers slipped out of its grip. One dug into the ground while the other was sent careening down to the escarpment’s base. Unluckily for Jack, the rift goblin’s charge hadn’t positioned it to fall back down the escarpment like it’s hammer had and it was only sent stumbling upon it’s backside.

Still, it brought Jack a few more seconds to deal with the two rift goblins that were approaching from the front.

Jack met the serrated scimitar that was viciously swung at him in a wide-arc with a quick flick of his own blade, the best maneuver he could manage in the moment he had to react to the attack.

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He could tell that the scimitar-wielding rift goblin was surprised when Jack’s moonsword managed to hold off the full strength of it’s attack at bay with what seemed like a casual swipe of his blade, as the screeching of metal against metal rang out in testament to the unexpected sight.

Jack didn’t stop there however and started to push back against the rift goblin’s serrated scimitar, which caused its eyes to widen in surprise, until Jack abruptly stopped applying the pressure. That hadn’t been a maneuver the rift goblin had been expecting and as it found itself pushing Jack’s blade back easily, it stopped in fear of overextending itself.

That moment of hesitation was what Jack had been aiming for, as he pulled his blade back just enough to free itself from the jaws of the serrated blade and with a flick of his blade and a one-step lunge, buried the tip of his moonsword in the rift goblin’s neck.

His instincts went haywire as his gaze caught onto the glint of metal on his right. He abruptly pulled back his blade as quickly as he could, but the axe blow that it caught on it’s length caused powerful tremors to make their way to the hilt of his blade.

If he lost his grip over his moonsword, Jack was dead, so he clenched his teeth and just about managed to hold onto it.

By the time Jack had repositioned himself in a combat stance, he found an axe head hurling towards him for the second time.

Parrying an axe wasn’t the wisest of ideas, but Jack was confident that both his axe and his grip over it would survive the blow.

Still, he found himself wincing as he parried the axe, pushing both their weapon artifacts back. Jack used the precious moment he had earned by forcing an impasse to take two steps to circle his opponent from the left.

The axe-wielding rift goblin reacted before Jack could flank him, but he had never intended to in the first place. This time, when the deep purple skinned creature swung it’s axe, Jack positioned his shield before it.

When the axe blade met the shield of Greater Deflection, both it and it’s wielder were sent flying off the edge of the plateau, its confused yelp carrying a melange of terror and sheer stupefaction.

The sound of feet thumping against the earth behind him alerted him to the presence of the approaching hammer-wielding rift goblin, that had recovered a single hammer and was planning on embedding it in his unguarded back.

Jack pivoted on the ball of his right foot and swung Moonsword in the widest arc he could manage, channeling every ounce of strength he could manage along with the added momentum from the swing.

A sharp, metallic sound rang out as Moonsword sheared everything below the goblin’s neck from its above, drenching Jack’s already blood slicked armor with more splotches of dense red.

Heavily panting, Jack felt like every muscle in his body was burning from the exertion, but even his superhuman feats hadn’t deterred the remaining rift goblins. He could hear their approach, their pace a little slower, perhaps more cautious, but they climbed the escarpment none the less.

Jack whipped his neck to the left without being prompted and just about managed to evade a regular arrow that wasn’t attuned to Qi.

Almost.

Even as he broke into a sprint, Jack felt the burn in his right earlobe, his peripheral vision just about catching the steady trickle of blood dripping down his chin.

He had been grazed and the bastard commander hadn’t used Qi so he wouldn’t see it coming.

Hoping against the dire circumstances he found himself in, he gazed in the direction he expected to find Sarah, unsure what would greet him in turn.